Some School Choice from Jeff B

Some School Choice information from Mass. Dept of Elementary & Secondary Education website

Going to the website for Mass Dept of Elementary & Secondary Education, I found these numbers. It looks as thought the max rate for choice is $5,000.00. It also seems to show how much is spent on what. I do not see the $11,738.00 per student cost here. This information was listed under the preliminary choice tuition section for March 2013.

So if there is a $5,000.00 cap on school choice, where does that $11,738.00 number fit in. An article in todays Worcester Telegram, Dudley-Charlton school board opens 62 school choice slots. The receiving school gets $5,000.00 per student from the sending school. So it does not seem to be that NRHS loses $11,738.00 per student if a student opts out, seems like it is a cap of $5,000.00 per student plus a small loss of chapter 70 funds for the drop in enrollment. The DESE site also states the state reimburses for transportation costs of school choice students. On another front, listed is NRHS FY12 receiving tuition of $803,812.00 and FY12 sending tuition of $615,891.00 which seems to indicate Templeton received around 200 thousand dollars net from school choice. My question concerns the new elementary school, with MSBA requiring a certain number of sq ft per student, are Templeton taxpayers going to be asked to spend more tax dollars on a school because of increased enrollement from school choice? The law states that a school has to vote each year by June whether they will opt out of school choice, as in receiving students with a fixed number of slots, as students always maintain the right to choice out of a school to go to a school of their choice that has openings as I read the law. So looking down the road, is it fair to ask Templeton taxpayers to foot the bill for a school that could end up being larger than needed for the number of Templeton students.

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Office of School Finance 721 School Choice Rate Summary FY13 720 392 720 NARRAGANSETT Regular Vocational Instructional Services 6,042,063 0 Pupil Services 1,332,912 0 Administration and Fixed Charges 3,880,026 0 Total Expenditure 11,255,001 0 FTE membership 1,397.13 0.00 Average Cost 8,056 Eligible Rate* 5,000 * the lesser of 75 percent of average cost, or $5,000